In the manufacture of bedding such as mattresses, foundations or box springs, stapling operations for forming and attaching borders, panels and other components traditionally have been extremely labor intensive, manual operations that generally have required a significant amount of skill on the part of the operator to cut, staple, and finish the bedding components. The more labor intensive and the greater the amount of skill required of the operator to form a component, however, the greater the cost and the more limited or slower the production of such components. As a result, there have been efforts to develop more automated stapling equipment that will enable less skilled operators to operate the equipment and form bedding components, and/or which can be operated with less operator control or intervention required. This will allow one operator to run multiple stapling stations at the same time in order to increase production, while decreasing the manpower and skill level of the operator required to form the desired bedding components.
In addition, some operations, such as cover stretching and stapling operations, whereby a cover, including a panel with a border attached thereto, is applied to a spring unit or box springs such as for a foundation, requires significant physical exertion on the part of the operator to pull a fabric border or panel to a tightly stretched position or orientation before stapling the fabric to the spring unit. Such action by the operator can lead to significant differences or lapses in quality control, especially over a six to eight hour work shift, during which the operator must repetitively pull and hold the fabric to be sewn or stapled in a stretched position. As the operator tires, or otherwise loosens their grip, the fabric can sag or slip, thus resulting in gaps and/or irregularities that can cause rejection of the foundation, requiring removal and reattachment of the fabric to fix such errors. In addition, such repetitive physical exertion on the part of an operator can, over time, lead to injuries such as carpel tunnel syndrome and other, similar repetitive strain injuries that can result in loss of work and productivity and cause significant disability to such workers.
Accordingly, it can be seen that a need exists for a stretching and stapling system that addresses the foregoing and other related and unrelated problems in the art.